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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



JEVONS BLOCK 



A BOOK OF SEX ENMITY 



KATE BUSS 



BOSTON 
McGrath-Sherrill Press 

NINETEEN SEVENTEEN 






Copyright, Nineteen Seventeen 
McGRATH-SHERRILL PRESS 



JUL 22 1818 

4 

©CI.A499975 



Thanks a?~e due to the editors of 

Others, The Poetry Review, and The Boston Transcript 

for their permission to reprint certain of the 
poems included in this volume. 



To Arabelle and Arthrite Bacon, 

To Ivan and Elise, 

To a man who sees the substance 

In mirrors, 

I am indebted 

For the truth of Jevons Block. 



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ILLUSTRATIONS 



TYPES 



AND 



FACES 



Cosmetic Seller 






Arabelle 


15 


Poet .... 






Arthrite Bacon 


17 


Masseur 






Raphael Lenski 


19 


Florist 






Ruth .... 


21 


Rug Maker 






Arkel Aronian 


23 


Doctor 






Dr. Devine 


25 


Bric-a-brac Repairer 






Simon Weaver . 


27 


Coiffeuse . 






Elise .... 


29 


Hat Bleacher . 






Michael Elder 


31 


Manicure . 






M. James 


33 


Appraiser . 






Jukes .... 


35 










37 


Corsetiere 






Celeste Dereme 


39 


Dancing Master . 








41 


Dressmaker 






Whilemina Winter . 


43 


Drug Clerk 






Sidney Falk 


45 


Photographer . 






Paul Draemer . 


47 


Taxidermist 






A. Bly . . . . 


49 


Tea Room Manager 






Mrs. Smith-Reeder 


51 


Entertainment Bureai 


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Horatio Hinklemitt 


53 



II 



PROLOGUE BY THE ELEVATOR BOY 



♦ 



You see me as the elevator boy, 

But the actuality of my position is ephemeral ; 

In a year I shall receive a degree in medicine 

And go. 

Meanwhile I study the colossal symbol of a human being 

In this pile of masonry 

That sanctions the ugly 

In ornament, in smiles, in sex. 

I hear a human anger in my signal bell. 

The shaft down which the elevator slides 

Is the spine to keep the system together; 

And the corridors are nerves that link each room 

As heart and brain that strive in secret. 

Am I responsible to have said it? 

Or responsible only so far as I have seen the scheme unfairly ? 

Abnormal and abortive matter 

Tighten the leash on truth. 

To deceive is to establish an enemy — 

Which brings me to the theme 

That scars and shadows Jevons Block. 



PROLOGUE BY THE ELEVATOR BOY, continued 



It is the subconscious enmity 

Of the men and women in it. 

You may hear it in the labored breathing, 

See it in the eyes that seek for salvage 

As hawkers swoop and seize in isolation. 

If sex were meant to be an inhibition, 

Would God have planned it in dependent atoms ? 

The poet speaks as though it were a cloak 

To smarten the circumstance of living — 

Poor old flabby Bacon — 

Miss Ruth' s too young to know beyond solicitation — 

Some never see the enmity of sexes, 

Having minds that sift no ash — 

But Anabelle is scarred and states the reason, 

And Draemer says a woman is the open door to boredom. 

In each 

The over-sense of sex 

Idles the libido to sterile purpose 

And motivates in Jevons Block 

To evade responsibility. 



13 




M 



ARABELLE 

Perfumes and Cosmetics 



I dislike men. 

Dislike them for the strain 

They put on women. 

If I didn't have to earn a living 

I'd snap my ringers at this fading hair of mine 

And let the colour in my cheeks 

Begin to go. 

I'd sit down to it 

And rock my age in comfort by the fire. 

Forty-seven and poor — 

If you're single — 

Is the devil of a combination for a woman. 

Every time a married one 

Comes in to buy a box of rouge 

I'd like to tell her she's a fool to do it 

When she's not obliged to look young. 

Once I said as much 

And the woman answered 

"I guess you're not married 

Or you'd know the reason". 

I dislike men 

For the strain they put on women. 




[6 



ARTHRITE BACON 

Poetry Bookshop 



I married a famous palmist 
In Leipzig — 
Joined myself to one 

Who had imagination but no rhythm in her soul 
To gain a home 

Long since dissolved by extravagance and death. 
It was my desire to live well; 
In Paris if I might choose 
Where poets are not so much the fashion 
As the feeders of a lyric nation. 
The Alexandrine was my metre, 
None it seems care about that in this country. 
And not to starve I stilled my song 
To vend the songs of other poets 
Whose vocation is but avocation now with me. 
Fate has not been friend to me. 
Could I have loved like Rupert Brooke 
Or lived like Amy Lowell 
I ask you fairly to decide 
If I'd be urging you to buy their books 
Instead of selling my own ? 

17 





a p n a e I l^e \i s rC 



18 



RAPHAEL LENSKI 

Osteopath 



What would Buonarotti say 

Who worshipped Vittoria 

And the sparse line of the Sistine Chapel 

If he could see the bulk of crepe kimono 

I must model with. 

Great thighs and sagging breasts, 

Muscles I can never tighten 

'Though I punch and pound and stretch 

Until some women shriek to stay me, 

But they always come again 

In supine endeavor to get thin. 

Sometimes one imagines I love her! 

Lord! They make me sick, 

These women yearning for a new sensation. 

Do they think that I would touch them 

If I were not paid to do it. 

Master, listen! 

My lovely lady's shrined next door. 



19 



RUTH 

Flower Shop 



Days when trade is dull 

I dream of flowers that do not grow in dozens 

Wired for a funeral or a fete. 

Somewhere 

I imagine meadows swaying 

With whatever colour they may be, 

Ten thousand thousand blossoms 

Free their hearts 

To a robin or a chick-a-dee. 

And I may pull them for everyone's possession. 

Companion all the city children, 

To old ladies send surprise bouquets, 

Pin a flower on my lover's jacket 

Every noon at one. 

And if the sun is over-hot with shining 

And the night is late to come, 

It is no matter. 

There'll be just as many more 

Tomorrow morning 

Fresh to feel the sun. 



21 




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1 



ARKEL ARONIAN 

Rugs Woven and Repaired 



Weaving rugs to please a rich man 

Weaving luck for me, 

Rich man, poor man, 

Waiting for a rug to finish 

Fortunes to compare! 

White's for luck in red Bokhara, 

Red of warp and woof to wear. 

White to sign a compact with the Devil 

Shunting off all evil 

From my son. 

Red of thread to savour him 

White to spare — 

Pearls to play with 

And to ask a prayer — 

Sleep my son in God's securest silence. 

Thy father'll not have done 

The red Bokhara 

'Til the spring and thou 

Are come. 



23 




24 



DR. DEVINE 

Physician 



Today 

I am surfeited with women 

Their streaked faces bore me. 

Whys 

Listened to before, 

Eyes, 

Wet and bent to implore, 

Ask for quarter — 

Weak to meet a ghost 

When strong they went to seek it — 

I do not share in their delight, 

Why must they shamble at my door 

With secret bills and moist supplication 

To bribe me to break the law? 

I do and I may, 

But for today 

I shall leave these painful ladies 

To palliate their sins to someone else 

Who'll chance their wage. 



25 




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26 



SIMON WEAVER 

Bric-a-brac Repaired 



My neighbor is closeted 

All day 

With lovely ladies, 

They hold his hands and weep. 

If one should smile at me 

I would wipe away her tears 

With my apron, 

And join together 

The broken wings of her grief. 

I will ask my neighbor 

To bring me a lovely lady 

To mend. 

He is walking down the street 

Swinging a stick 



27 




23 



ELISE 

Coiffeuse 



Yes! I know Madame 

She asked for me 

And she's a millionaire 

But I hate her smell. 

You said yourself the last time she was in 

'Twas like a polecat — 

An' she's got sunken tubs to every chamber, 

I heard her tell it — 

A facial! And curl her hair! 

Gawd! 

The thermometer's a hundred. 

You say 

If I don't do it I can go! 

Where'd I go in August?. 

No I wouldn't, 

That's where you get off. 

This way Mrs. Smith 

There's a breeze that's blowing by this window. 

Let me have your hat, 

Sailors are so smart with linen suits. 



29 




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30 



MICHAEL ELDER 

Hats Reblocked 



I've worked on hats since I was seventeen 

And now I'm close to seventy. 

Straw for tulip and the caring weather, 

Felt for winter - — 

Fits more firmly on old men's hair — 

Wide brim narrowed by a quarter inch 

(Shows as though 'twas on your nose to some) 

Ribbon freshed and curve pressed straight. 

Once I used to ponder 

Why a hat should need reshaping 

Just the time some man had formed it 

To a firm and fellowed feeling 

By a few months wear. 

I have learned 

Through feeling bands that sweat to fit a brow, 

That men with brains inside their heads 

Wear their hats the longest. 



31 




32 



M. JAMES 

Manicure 



I have known hands all my life. 

It is my bread to tint an ageing palm 

That scants its tip for rosaline 

And the careful removal of dry flesh. 

Butter for my bread 

I buy from fingers that make light with mine 

And slide a dollar in between to make it right. 

Hands are mostly all alike 

Thinking through their fingertips 

Of bargaining and lust. 

But his are different, 

Lean and unconcerned with me, 

Even when lying idle in soapy water. 

Just to feel his fingers for five minutes 

Fd perfume them, without money, 

To philander at another breast than mine. 

But some day — 

Before I'm faded with the wanting — 

I shall do his nails in the farther room 

And take the pay for waiting 

There. 

Little enough it will be 

But long cherishing quick spent. 

33 




34 



JUKES 

Appraiser 



All life's for shrewd appraising. 

Fools and dreamers take a turn at telling values 

And philosophers have tried it. 

Some measure men by bed and book 

That all the world may see to look — 

The fools are these. 

And some will regulate the count 

By what they are themselves — 

These are dreamers. 

Household sticks aren't much to price a life 

That's furnished by secrets and long sittings; 

Nor much to make a living by perhaps you'll think, 

But that's the humor in the plan 

Though few will laugh to feel it. 

Grotesques — 

In low or high relief — 

We fill the earth's entablature 

With ashlar or with clay, 

And form its decoration. 

When I tiptoe through empty dwellings 

And see in dusty mirrors 

Doubts and potent failures 

That grimace in over-ponderous flesh 

I am too terrified to laugh. 

These the Great Appraiser will inspect 

When I have left my human house untenanted. 

35 




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36 



LEANDRE 

Sample Shoes 



Staccato women 

Wear out paid for leather 

Seeking newer shoes. 

Foolish shoppers 

With their busy quests and baffled eyes. 

Sometimes one is sorry for me 

Selling. 

There is recompense for every service. 

And all the day 

Through which my long reflective fingers 

Feel the urge beneath the silk 

I am content to linger 

At your unshod feet. 



37 




Lclc^JyeTCTTH 



3* 



CELESTE DEREME 

Cor sett ere 



Nietzsche says 

Woman has cause for shame 

If she unlearns her art of charming. 

But he had no more transparent plane 

From which to analyze the world 

Than I who corset idle women 

And stand to labour to their conversation. 

Tiens! Aphrodite is long dead 

And her progeny are become asexual marionettes 

To dance and not pay. 

Some women aid slackened muscles 

With steel and satin stripes, 

Some buy stiffened nainsook 

To shape their barrenness, 

And mirrors flatter the deception. 

Yesterday I measured a fevered creature 

To suckle a child 

And she completes the metaphor. 

Clothed in renascent flesh 

A mirror seemed the last place that she cared to look. 

When I rejoiced to see comeliness 

Arrows pointed in her eyes. 

She was too deceived by fantasie 

To divine her glory. 

39 




40 



IVAN KARENINE 

Dancing Master 



One step — two step — 

Pardon if I use a pressure 

My arm dictates the measure, Madame. 

Listen 

You who wonder why I dance no longer 

At the court in Russia. 

War's the reason — 

I must fight or live elsewhere — 

War has naught to do with dancing. 

War is murder! Mars its wanton father. 

Sometimes Earth brings forth a bastard. 

On a silver night she smiles to say 

"This son of mine I do not breed to fight" 

I was born within this Mother-rhythm 

Of listening feet and low and lissome laughter 

Where ecstasy is breath and measure to the senses, 

And I can never be a citizen of slaughter. 

But Mars has sought to snare my feet with battle anthems, 

And all the day inside my alien head 

The rage that sped me here 

Shrieks to follow after. 

One step — two step — 

Rhythmed like marching soldiers, 

Swells to martial music 

In a language spiked with swords. 

41 




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42 



WHILEMINA WINTER 

Smart Shop 



Once I dreamed 

My mission was to make the world good looking, 

The women I mean — 

The world is round for men and slopes their way 

But women need to harbour youth to stay — 

I'm not for suffrage, as you may think from what I say. 

But I don't need to ask a favor, 

And my hair has kept its russet fret and fleck 

(I'm quoting now about my hair) 

However, revenons a nos moutons as the Frenchmen say. 

I bought this shop from a girl who wished to marry, 

Planned to dress no two the same 

But show to each her own attainment 

With clothes objectively designed. 

Before a year was up I saw I'd never make a living 

Forcing personalities. 

Then I figured what it is that Eve is really wanting 

And discovered — what no male has ever doubted — 

That every woman dressed to please some man, 

And few men notice what their women wear 

If the price is right. 

Now I dress them all alike 

And they are better pleased to look like some one else 

And I can pay my bills. 

43 




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SIDNEY FALK 

Drugs 



Miss Winter's just been in 

To drink her malted milk. 

She buys no other stuff of me — 

No boxes with their value in the label — 

And I don't believe she trades with Anabelle. 

She says that all a woman needs is work 

To keep her circulation up. 

Miss Winter's something of a joker, 

Insists that husbands are like drugs 

A narcotic to the nervous system. 

She says she dreams of life 

In terms of dresses 

Just as I with drugs. 

I wish she didn't feel so strong for clothing strangers 

But it's great to hear her say 

Deception, respite, dreams, and courage 

Find in each of us a sharer. 

And I can wait 'til she is over-tired 

To alchemize her views with mine. 



45 




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4 6 



PAUL DRAEMER 

Photographer 



Women bore me. 

Tenderly they say 

"Make me beautiful" 

And then lament 

If I let a wrinkle stay. 

They can't see that lines are lovely, 

That life, not youth, is gay, 

Or they'd abjure the struggle 

For the adolescent surface 

Of unworked clay. 

Women bore me by too little knowledge 

Every day. 

Always they are thinking 

Men are keen to legalize a look 

Or coax them to loiter on the way. 

Why can't they sometimes take for granted 

We may wish to look away. 



47 




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A. BLY 

Taxidermist 



♦ 



I was once a surgeon 

With the gospel for knife — 

What sin begat I endeavored to destroy — 

But there's a strange psychology in sinning, 

Men pay to seek it 

Who will not spend a cent to put it away. 

To say my practice brought no supper to my table 

Is neither to disprove the existence of sin 

Nor keep vigil against. 

Now I scrape the skins of animals 

To live. 

Salt for their hides is best. 

Somberly 

A Javanese monkey sits on a shelf 

And obscenely chatters when I edge my tools, 

But I shall not skin him yet 

He brings trade from our brothers. 



49 




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MRS. SMITH-REEDER 

Tea Room Manager 



Old women 

Nod bien coiffe heads 

Over Orange Pekoe 

And the bitter green 

Of English breakfast brew. 

Young girls come in 

To gaze at men 

And bewilder with their bodies. 

It is not tea they drink — 

Tea is a sophisticated taste. 

Only old women know this. 



51 




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5» 



HORATIO HINKLEMITT 

Entertainment Bureau 



The Bible says 

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers." 

No doubt you are surprised to learn 

I read The Book, 

But if I didn't seek a smile 

In Solomon 

Or that old stoic Epictetus 

I couldn't swing this entertainment business 

In which the humor's more apparent 

On the stage than in the office. 

It's the laugh between us — 

Of that I'm not forgetful — 

That entertains the stranger. 



53 



